Bethany Seminary’s Presidential Forum on “Joy and Suffering in the
Body: Turning Toward Each Other” brought more than 160 people to the
campus in Richmond, Ind., on April 12-14. Headlining the event was James
Forbes, senior minister emeritus of New York’s Riverside Church and
Harry Emerson Fosdick Adjunct Professor of Preaching at Union
Theological Seminary.
The forum was the fourth in a series inaugurated by Bethany president
Ruthann Knechel Johansen, who said in her introductory remarks that
this year’s topic was sparked by controversy in the church and society
over what it means to be sexual and spiritual beings made in the image
of God.
 |
| Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford |
| Dr. James Forbes (left) and Bethany
president Ruthann Knechel Johansen (at center) during a time of prayer
in small groups at the Presidential Forum. The event brought some 160 or
more people to the seminary campus in Richmond, Ind. |
“The Presidential Forums suggest another way of being in the world
and publicly open the witness of Bethany Seminary to a church and world
hungering for compassion, justice, and peace,” she said. “The roots of
this witness lie in several core practices of our Anabaptist-Pietist
heritage. These include the study of scripture in community, the
expectation that the Holy Spirit guides and continues to reveal God’s
truth to us, and the belief that loving our neighbor or the stranger,
even our enemies, embodies Christ’s way in the world.”
Forbes’ sermon-like presentations offered more questions than answers
at the intersection of sexuality and spirituality. Asking the group to
remember there was a time when you could not talk about sex in church,
his opening presentation included a long list of questions from many
different points of view--seemingly intended to give permission to
participants to ask any question of their own.
“We aren’t going to solve this one,” he said at one point. Although
conversation about sexuality “has held the church in bondage for the
last 50 years,” Forbes said the church must continue the struggle. “It’s
not the achievement (of a conclusion) that’s going to be impressive to
God,” he said. “It’s in trying our best that God sees frail human beings
pulled toward perfection.”
There were also presentations by panelists from a variety of academic
fields. Presentations ranged from a clinical medical approach to
variations in human sexuality by David E. Fuchs, medical director for
the Brethren Village Retirement Community in Lancaster, Pa.; to
reinterpretation of St. Augustine’s writings on sexuality and original
sin by David Hunter, Cottrill-Rolfes Chair of Catholic Studies at the
University of Kentucky; to the psychological and symbolic significance
of sexuality from a Jungian perspective by Amy Bentley Lamborn,
assistant professor of Pastoral Theology at General Theological
Seminary, who asked people to consider what gift may be sheltered in the
"other" whom we fear or reject.
Also panelists were Ken Stone, academic dean and professor of Hebrew
Bible, Culture, and Hermeneutics at Chicago Theological Seminary, who
argued for alternate “queer” readings of Bible texts as a tool for
preaching; and Gayle Gerber Koontz, professor of Theology and Ethics at
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, who for years has taught
sexuality to ministry students.
Recommendations to the church were part of the presentations by Fuchs
as well as Koontz. Fuchs urged participants to remember that when a
family or a church rejects a person because of sexuality that serious
harm is done, telling the story of losing a childhood friend to suicide.
The church’s response to sexuality should have the goal of reducing
harm and working against violence, he said.
Among her recommendations, Koontz called for the church to promote
“sexual shalom” or “holy love” that is obliged to treat other people as
sacred to God. She called for valuing singleness as a valid spiritual
choice alongside marriage, called Christians to remember true family is
not biological but found in the church community, and called for
openness to conversation about sexuality in the church in a variety of
ways including sex education from a Christian perspective. A lack of
ability to talk gracefully about sexuality has led to anger, conflict,
and self-righteous attitudes in the church, she said.
Forbes closed the forum in an attitude of prayer and praise, calling
on the presence of the Holy Spirit. The absence of God may be the reason
for a less than satisfactory experience of love in human life, he said,
adding that the intimacy of one person with another may be a gift
intimating the ultimate experience of the presence of God. “I want to
know God through God’s Spirit, such that there is nothing stronger,” he
declared.
After Forbes led in prayer, a closing worship invited participants to
a service of communion. Each day of the forum featured worship led by
students, faculty, emeritus faculty, and alumni. A concert by Mutual
Kumquat rounded out the evening on Friday.
A Pre-Forum Gathering for alumni featured presentations by faculty of
Bethany and Earlham School of Religion. Topics included the relational
costs of pornography--with statistics on its growing use, influence, and
addiction even among church members and pastors; pastoral care that is
sensitive to sexuality; the ways young adults search for intimacy; and
small group sharing around a Bible text. Presentations were by Julie
Hostetter, director of the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership;
Jim Higginbotham, ESR assistant professor of Pastoral Care and
Counseling; Russell Haitch, director of Bethany’s Institute for Ministry
with Youth and Young Adults; and New Testament professor Dan Ulrich,
who led the devotional reading of Matthew 20 with Edward L. Poling.
Excerpts from the forum presentations will appear in the Summer issue
of Bethany’s magazine “Wonder & Word.” In addition, DVDs of the
forum sessions will be made available for purchase. For more information
contact Jenny Williams at
willije1@bethanyseminary.edu.
Source:4/19/2012 Newsline
A
new video has been made about the experience of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a
Nigeria (EYN--the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and its efforts at
peacemaking in an environment of conflict and increasing violence.
